Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

This chapter is for Chikasumi Kurotsuki because she demanded it. :) It's a sequel chapter to chapter 38 - Secret. Hope you guys enjoy! Then I promise, no more baby stories for awhile!

If someone told me a week ago that I'd be waking up in a twin bed next to a screeching child I would have said, "What did I smoke the night before?" The screeching was bad enough as it was, I couldn't imagine what it'd be like if I was hungover.

It took me another minute to finally fight through the sleeping/dreaming period to get to the waking part. The part where I remembered that I was in Utah. With Sydney. And our son.

Nick.

I stretched and sat up a little, knocking into the kid and causing him to stop shouting. "Dad, dad, dad," I realized was what he'd been saying. And directly in my ear.

"Good morning," Nick said, sitting back on the bed and grinning up at me. I grinned back. It was hard not to, what with the big gap in his smile. He was missing an incisor—that I was pretty sure he hadn't been missing yesterday. "My tooth fell out," he said, confirming my suspicion. "Want to see it?"

He held out his hand, a tiny bloody tooth clutched in his small fingers. Part of me, the part that was still adjusting to this kid being my kid, wanted to put as much distance between me and that bloody little tooth as possible. But the other part of me, the part that saw how the kid's eyes were the exact same shade of brown as Sydney's, that his grin—missing teeth and all—looked like an old photo of me my mom still kept framed in the living room, that part smiled and looked at the tooth with way more interest than it probably deserved.

"When did it fall out?" I asked, getting up off the bed and stretching again.

Nick jumped up, apparently having all the energy in the world at—I glanced at the Superman clock on his wall—six thirty in the morning. Ugh.

"When I got up to get a cereal bar," he said, still holding the tooth out towards me. "I bit it and my tooth hurt. There was a lot of blood."

"I bet," I muttered, unsure of what to do. This was my kid, but I didn't know anything about kids. No one I knew even had any. I was an only child. I had no pool of knowledge from which to pull any sort of child caring techniques. I mean, my God, I even sucked at small talk. This was so much easier last night when Sydney was standing there.

Sydney!

"Where's your mom?" I asked Nick, looking around like maybe she'd pop out from the closet or something.

"She's asleep," he said and jumped off the bed.

"Whoa, easy there," I said, steadying him as he landed on the hardwood floor. "You already lost one tooth today. Don't knock the rest out before lunch."

He grabbed my hand, ignoring me completely. "I'm hungry. Will you cook me pancakes?"

"Uh, yeah. Alright." I could do pancakes. I'd seen other people make them, at least.

Nick dragged me into the kitchen before finally letting go. He put his tooth down on the kitchen table—something I'm sure would bother Sydney if she was awake. You know, germs and all. He bounced on his heels as he told me where to find all the ingredients we'd need.

Sydney's kitchen was small, but incredibly well organized. I was pretty sure her cereal cabinet was arranged by nutritional value. It didn't take long for me to find everything. When all the ingredients were laid out a small hand pushed a bag of semisweet chocolate chips onto the counter next to everything.

"I can have pancakes with chocolate chips, I think," Nick said with a hopeful look in his eyes. "'Cause it's a special day, 'cause I lost my tooth. Mom doesn't let me have chocolate for breakfast on normal days."

"I can't imagine why not," I muttered, taking in his still bouncing form. Then I clapped my hands together and looked at the ingredients. "Alright, pancakes with chocolate chips. How hard can this be?"

"Hard," Nick answered seriously. "I tried to make them myself one time and Mom yelled at me for making a mess."

I smirked down at him. "Yeah, well, she'll probably end up yelling at both of us when she wakes up, so be prepared. Let's just try not to be too messy, alright? And wash your hands."

"Okay," Nick said and pulled over a kitchen chair to stand on.

I watched him flip on the faucet and pour some soap on his tiny hands with the oddest smile on my face. Because finally, for the first time since I found out about Nick, I actually felt kind of like a father.

A half hour later when Sydney walked out of the hall and into the kitchen I saw all of the normal emotions pass across her face. You know, the emotions someone would obviously have when waking up to see their ex-boyfriend and son trying to flip chocolate chip pancakes out of a frying pan and onto a plate. Grogginess transformed into recognition, then to something that resembled amusement, and then—when she saw the state of the kitchen—annoyance. I'll admit, it was pretty bad. We'd really tried not to make a mess, but I'd discovered soon after pulling out all of the ingredients that cooking wasn't quite as easy as cooking shows made it look.

I'd gotten pancake mix all over the counter and it had started to harden to the Formica. Then Nick offered to open the bag of chocolate chips and ended up getting chocolate all over the counter and floor and stove. All together I'd learned that my son was probably never going to be a chef and I shouldn't try to make breakfast anymore. At least, not the kind that involves anything other than milk and a spoon.

At least the amused look returned to Sydney's face quickly. "You're cleaning that," she said.

"Hey, he helped," I said pointing at Nick who had already grabbed his plate and was trying to hide out at the kitchen table.

Sydney laughed a little. "You're both cleaning it up. It'll be good for you. You know, bonding and all that. In the meantime, eat your pancakes," she said to Nick, then turned back to me. "I've got to talk to you."

I wiped my hands off on a paper towel and followed her to her bedroom. Once we were inside and she'd closed the door behind us I started to apologize.

"I'm sorry about the mess. I'll clean everything up. But he woke me up this morning saying he lost a tooth and that he wanted pancakes... I just didn't want to say no."

Sydney started to shake her head, but stopped abruptly. "He lost a tooth?"

I grinned. "Yeah. Now he's got this cute little gap," I said gesturing at my front teeth.

Sydney returned my smile. "That tooth's been lose for two weeks, it was bothering him. I wondered when it would fall out. But that's not why I wanted to talk." She straightened her shoulders and her smile grew even wider. "I talked to Stanton last night."

I studied her closely for a few seconds. "I take it from your expression it went well?"

"She knew," she said quietly. "The whole time she knew you were the father. She's going to help us disappear." Her smile finally dimmed, just a little, and she worried her lip, looking distracted. "But we have to leave as soon as possible. I have to pack. And we'll need someplace to stay..."

"You'll stay with me in my apartment. It's only one bedroom, but you and Nick can take the bed and I'll sleep on the couch. Or we could clear out my studio and stick a bed in there. It wouldn't be much of a room, but it'll work for a few days. Just until we get a house."

Sydney nodded and gave me a small smile. "Thank you. This isn't going to be easy, for any of us, but I love that you're willing to try."

I reached out and brushed her bangs behind her ear. "Of course I am. I want us to be a family."

She grinned all of a sudden. "How was it with him this morning? You looked like you were handling fatherhood pretty well."

I sighed and pulled her closer. "Once I stopped over-thinking everything it went a lot smoother. But it's hard. I don't know what to do or say. How to act. I've never been around kids before." I wrapped my arms around her waist, leaning in to touch my forehead to hers. "How did you get so good at this?"

"I'm not," she said. "I kept my son from his father for the first five years of his life." I pulled back, ready to argue with her—I didn't want her to feel guilty anymore—but she went on. "I lost him once," she said, changing the subject suddenly. "In a department store. He wandered off when I was talking to Carly. We freaked and looked everywhere. I found him playing in the fountain outside. Scared me half to death." She shook her head, her blonde hair obscuring her eyes. "My point is, no one is good at this. I'm certainly not. I think the only thing we can really do is love him. And I know you love him already." She looked up and smiled. "I saw how happy you looked in the kitchen just now. And last night."

"It's hard not to love him. Even when he wakes you up at six thirty in the morning pointing a bloody tooth at you." I smirked at her, my fingers reaching out and brushing the side of her arm. "Or when he interrupts some very important mommy and daddy time."

Sydney stepped so close to me she had to crane her neck to look me in the eye. "Yeah, even then," she said in a wistful voice. "But he's distracted right now. Probably will be for at least a few more minutes..."

She didn't finish her thought, but she didn't have to. I had her flat on the bed within seconds. She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck, tugging me closer as my lips trailed down her chin and toward the neckline of her pajamas. There wasn't enough time to really do any of the things I wanted to do with her, but I'd never passed up the chance to kiss Sydney and I wasn't going to start now.

"Adrian," she breathed when I pulled down the strap of her top and kissed my way across her collarbone. She was as lost in the feeling of my lips on her as I was. Her hands came up into my hair, tugging me back to her mouth.

"Mom!"

"Are you kidding me?" I whined, dropping my head onto her chest. "It hasn't even been five minutes."

Sydney didn't get up right away. She laid there, underneath me, catching her breath. "He's not used to sharing me with anyone else," she said, trying to calm down. "It'll take a little while for him to get used to us... having alone time."

I grinned and rolled off of her. "I wish we were having alone time right now."

Sydney rolled her eyes and stood up, but I could see the blush creeping up her neck. "I bet you do," she said with a shake of her head and then glanced around the room. "I really have to get packed—"

"Mom!" Nick's voice carried down the hall again.

Sydney's eyes closed briefly. "And tell Nick we're moving. And..." She opened her eyes and her face crumpled. "And figure out how I'm going to tell my family."

"Shh." I jumped up and wrapped my arms around her. "We'll figure that out later. Right now just worry about what you want to take with you. I can help Nick get his stuff together, if you want. And call a moving company? Whatever you need."

She shook her head. "No movers. But there's a duffle bag in Nick's closet. Get as many of his clothes in there as possible, and the toys he really wants to bring. I want to be out of here as soon as possible."

I nodded. "So we're really doing this?" I couldn't keep the grin off my face. "We're disappearing together."

Sydney grinned back and leaned up to kiss me. It was quick, but the feel of her lips against mine never failed to send electric bolts down my spine. "As soon as you help me get your son packed up, yeah. We're disappearing together."

"And you're sure you're okay with this?" I asked slowly. "We'll talk to your family and make them understand, so don't worry about that. But... You want to be with me?"

"Adrian." Sydney sighed and let her hands trail over my shoulders and down my sides. She gripped my shirt and buried her face in my chest. My arms wrapped around her automatically, tugging her closer. "There's never been any place else I've wanted to be."

I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "We're going to be alright," I said.

"Mom!" Nick's voice cut through the air. "The chocolate chips are smushed onto the floor!"

She smiled against me before pulling away, her golden eyes dancing. "Yeah. We're going to be fine. As long as someone goes out there and helps our son clean the mess he made."

I grinned. "He's calling you."

Sydney pulled away, shaking her head. "Nope," she laughed. "You're the one who cooked with him. Your fault."

I heaved an exaggerated sigh and turned toward the bedroom door. "Fine. I'll clean up the kitchen and our son and pack all of his stuff. You go ahead. Relax. I'll do all the manly work."

She laughed. "Sure, I'll relax. Maybe I'll even take a bubble bath while I'm at it."

I opened the door, but turned back to her with a small smile. "You should. I'm sure we have time."

She just shook her head. "Too much to do. Maybe when we get to your apartment. Or wherever." A smile suddenly spread across her face, the kind of smile that made me think wicked things. "And maybe you could join me," she whispered.

"Mmm," was the most sensible response I could muster for a moment. Sydney didn't wait for me to recollect myself though, she was already pushing me out into the hall.

"Later," she said with a smirk and closed the door in my face.

I smiled. Yeah. Definitely later.